Farewell to Family?

It sounds like a throwback to the heights of political correctness of the early 1990s, but it's actually happening here in New York City in 2008: The Prospect Park Alliance has renamed its annual, much loved "Family Day" event as "Members Spring Fest." To rub salt in the wounds of family-loving Brooklynites, a "save the date" postcard notes in small print that the event is "formerly known as Family Day."

So much for family values in Brooklyn, is the apparent decision of the Prospect Park Alliance board. That group of eminent New Yorkers includes Mayor Bloomberg's daughter Emma; Mr. Bloomberg's Parks Commissioner, Adrian Benepe; his finance commissioner, Martha Stark; and his former transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall (who is Mrs. Senator Schumer).

We're all for making the park, one of New York City's jewels, welcoming to all law-abiding New Yorkers. But New Yorkers are a strong-willed bunch, not the bunch of shrinking violets that the Alliance authorities take them for. Those of us who are families of one, or of two, or nontraditional families, are still families. Taking the "family" out of Family Day redefines the word family in a way that is far more exclusionary than an event named Family Day. What's next — the renaming of Members Spring Fest in a way that doesn't offend non-members, people who prefer Autumn, and those who like being sad rather than festive?